Inn Situ by Studio Mut
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Studio Mut Comments Off on Inn Situ by Studio MutOpinion by Richard Baird.
Inn Situ is part of the cultural programme of BTV Bank and series of three events; a exhibition, a concert and panel discussion. This takes place two to three times a year in the Austrian city of Innsbruck. The events are distinctive in their approach, a Russian doll of nested narratives, with each layer responding to the next. Practically speaking, and exemplifying the idea, one event saw an internationally renowned photographer create a project for the Inn Situ gallery. A local musician then composed a concert that responded to the photographs which played twice in the concert hall next to the exhibition. This was then followed by a panel discussion that responded to both the exhibition and the concert.
The format remains consistent, there is always three events, with the panel discussion and concert both seeking to contextualise the themes of the the artist and their the exhibition. So far, there has been three Inn Situ events, with a fourth due to take place soon. Each is accompanied by a printed programme and catalogue, plus a city-wide poster campaign designed Studio Mut in Italy. These share a similar material and visual language. For the sake of brevity, this article looks at the materials for Inn Situ 2. The framework of the visual identity and the format of the material outcome are the same, but each also folds in its own response to the themes present in the artwork to provokes the responses.
LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols (Preview)
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews Comments Off on LogoArchive ExtraIssue – Letters As Symbols (Preview) 
LogoArchive was conceived, designed and sent to print in a day. It was inspired by a panel discussion at Somerset House as part of the exhibition Print! Now on to its seventh release, LogoArchive continues to reconfigure itself with each new issue with the intention of surprising and delighting within the context of archival.
The distinctive smaller format offers ample license to experiment and collaborate with other like-minded resources. Christophe De Pelsemaker’s Logo Books, an online archive of pages from out-of-print publications dedicated to trademarks, is one such resource. Christophe’s own book, Letters As Symbols, a collaborative endeavour with renowned Belgian designer Paul Ibou, sought to bring to life and uniquely document symbols based on the letters of the alphabet. It has an compelling story and an interesting journey to publication which began in 1991. This LogoArchive ExtraIssue intends to offer readers a sample of Letters As Symbols and tell its story through symbols and archival documents.
Origen México by Blok
Posted: Filed under: Art and Design, Graphic Design Reviews | Tags: Book & Magazine Design, Book Design Review, Coloured Paper, Design Blog, Design For Print, Design Opinion, Design Reviews, Design Reviews: Editorial Design, Editorial Design, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Blog, Material Thinking, The Best Design for Print 2019, The Very Best of 2019, Typography Comments Off on Origen México by BlokOpinion by Richard Baird
Origen México is a encyclopaedic collection of cultural reference points from Mexico, and an expression of love for its land and identity, edited by Ámbar Editores and Paola Gonzalez Vargas. Written in Spanish it covers things such as, Barro negro pottery; the black clay pottery of Oaxaca, Barrancas del Cobre; the six canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental and individuals such as pioneering filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. In its breadth the book has a temporality; a relationship with time. One idea, place, person, piece of pottery or art directly or indirectly informs the another. Layers are built. The present is founded on, but would ultimately find it hard to recognise, all of the past, except that which immediately proceeded it. This is expressed through the materiality of the book, designed by Canadian studio Blok, using a light copy paper and show-through, the relationships and continuity formed with a consistent image treatment and the codifying visual language of consistent type, layout and an encyclopaedic format.
